Packaging and storing wax cakes



12, 1952 P. F. DOUGHERTY 2,605,656

' PACKAGING AND STORING WAX CAKES Filed June 14, 1949 DR) PAPER WRAPPER WA)( CAKE WA 7E1? ABSORBE/VT WATER WET $EPARA7'OR INVENTOR- PaW/ak flougiiem ATTORNEY Patented Aug. 12, 1952 UNITED, STATES PATENT I, 2,606,656 r I PAoxAdme AND 's'roRINe AX eAKEs Patrick F. Dougherty, Chester Heights, Pa., assigner to Sun Oil Company,- Philadelphia, Pa., acorporation of New Jersey a I 7 Application June 14, 1950, Serial N0. i6,1 49? This invention relates in general to storing an'd packagingwax cakesas prepared for useas an article of commerce.

The most economically shaped wax cake, manufactured at present by either the chilled casting method or the extrusion process, is a flat cake approximately an inch and one-half thick. The width and length of the cake varies to make the cake weigh from ten to twenty pounds. The difiiculty of either storing or shipping these cakes is the tedency they have to stick together on their contact surfaces. To conserve space it is necessary that they be stacked, which adds considerable pressure between the individual cakes. At normal temperatures they tend to soften and adhere together. This condition of adhesion is experienced whether the cakes are separated in small stacks of five cakes and placed in a carton for transport, or placed in large stacks in curing rooms for storage.

Shaping of the wax cake so as to decrease the overall area of contact between the cakes has been suggested as shown in Patent Number 2,099,213. To make the contact area sufficiently small, however, to prevent sticking, leaves a large unsupported area which causes the wax cakes to sag and contact on surfaces supposedly suspended under storage and shipping conditions.

This tendency to stick together has not been overcome by inserting paper of known resistant surfaces, such as glassine finished paper, between the cakes. With one sheet of paper the wax cakes stick to opposite sides of the sheet and require prying to separate. When they are pried apart, pieces of the paper separator stick to the cakes causing costly delay in use and a generally objectionable condition. To wrap each cake in separate paper covers entirely enclosing the surfaces involves added labor costs as well as the additional paper expense. Nor will this complete wrapper overcome the objection of paper sticking to the wax cake when it is unwrapped but merely prevents the cakes from forming an inseparable mass.

The problem is not confined, particularly, to low melting point waxes such as are commonly used as milk container coatings, but applies to all wax cakes subjected to pressure and normal temperatures during shipment and storing. Where waxes are used as a coating for containers used in packaging of food stuffs, it is required that it be tasteless and odorless as well as neutral in color. The application of a coating of lubricant or surface hard material which would prevent 1 Claim. (01. 206-84 objectionable. Even if such applications were tasteless, odorless and of neutral color, they would prevent the wax from adheringto the container surface which i the purpose of such waxes. It can generally be stated. therefore. that the very qualities which make the wax a satisfactory coating for paper manufactured containers are the objectionable shipping and storing characteristics. It is an object of the present invention to disclose a method of stacking wax cakes for either shipment or storage to retain the quality of the product, to prevent the cakes from sticking together and'also make them ready for immediate use by the consumer.

In the drawings, the single figure is an end elevational view, partly in section, showing a wax package of the present invention.

It has been discovered that a water absorbent water wet separator l2, water wet but not soaked to the point of disintegrating, inserted between the flat wax cakes l0 when they are originally placed in stacks will meet all these requirements. The flat, contact surfaces of the wax cake it which so-tlghtly adhere to each other and to dry paper wrappers or separators, tend to retain the moist condition of the water wet separator 12 for long periods of time. The surfaces in close contact exclude the air from the wet separator l2 and retain the dampness within the limits of the cakes even though, if the separators are of greater area than the flat faces of the cakes, the edges of the separators extending beyond the cakes become dry by evaporation.

Satisfactoryresults are obtained with either a surfaced paper such as the glassine type noted, or with a more porous and hence absorbent separator. Although other separating materials such as cloth, raffia, straw jute, or the like in sheet form can be used, the objections of taste and odor are overcome more readily with paper.

In shipping the wax cakes in cartons, it is satisfactory to place water wet separators l2 on the top and bottom of the stack as well as between the cakes IO and then wrap the whole stack in dry paper l4 preparatory to inserting it in the carton. The evaporation of the water in the separator can be further retarded by sealin the dry paper wrapper before placing the stack in the shipping carton or other container. The top and bottom separators do not retain the moist condition as long as those between the cakes but prevent the paper wrapper sticking to the exposed surfaces. The exposed edges of the cakes do not, under normal conditions, present the problem of the supporting surfaces as they are not exposed to the pressure of the stacked cakes.

While it is desirable to provide water wet separators of an area corresponding to that of the faces of the wax cakes, they may be of slightly greater area, as above indicated, or may be, less preferably, of slightly smaller area, since the unprotected marginal edges of adjacent wax cakes would be held out of pressure contact with each other.

The present practice of using coating wax particularly for food containers, precludes storage and shipping periods of long duration. The wax cakes are prepared by the manufacturer, stacked and shipped, usually within a few hours. The user orders only those supplies needed and the shipments are normally consumed in a few days after delivery. The method disclosed is then particularly well adapted to present methods of manufacture and use, and is entirely satisfactory under these conditions.

' I claim:

A wax package comprising, in combination, a

plurality of cakes of' wax having flat faces arranged in stack formation, and a water absorbent water-wet separator having an area at least as large as said wax cakes interposed between each of the opposing flat faces of said cakes and contacting the entire surface of the opposing flat faces of adjacent cakes, the opposing flat faces of said cakes in contact with said water-wet separators tending to maintain said separators wet over a prolonged period of time to permit easy separation of said cakes from each other 7 and from their respective separators, and a dry paper wrapper enclosing said stack of wax cakes and separators.

PATRICK F. DOUGHERTY.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Van Cleef July 8, 1941 

